Elaine Hoare recalls her mother buying five fish for a shilling, while Michael Heaton draws readers’ attention to an Americanism

Your article (Whale meat curry for dinner? Study of bygone seafood recipes shows how UK tastes have narrowed, 13 October) reminded me of the call of “Fresh herring, fresh herring” from the herring man wheeling his cart in the back lane by our house in Douglas, Isle of Man, in the 1950s. My mother went to him with a bowl and bought herring for tea – five for a shilling, if I remember correctly. They were delicious. We cleaned them, scored each side three or four times, dipped them in oatmeal and fried them. We have a fish man from Grimsby call every Monday, but he never has herring.
Elaine Hoare
Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire

• I am perplexed by the Marine Conservation Society’s suggestion that we should eat “wild-caught sea bass” as an alternative to cod (Scale back on hake and coley, seafood charity tells shoppers, 14 October). First, there is no such fish in Britain: “sea bass” is an Americanism they use to distinguish the marine bass from the several species of inedible freshwater bass in US rivers and lakes. We have only one species: bass. Second, it is insulting to suggest it as an alternative to cod. It is infinitely nicer than cod, but unsuited to battering.
Michael Heaton
Warminster, Wiltshire

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© Photograph: VICUSCHKA/Getty Images

© Photograph: VICUSCHKA/Getty Images

© Photograph: VICUSCHKA/Getty Images

Herring, flatfish and oysters are increasingly off the dining table, with just five fish species now dominating

In days gone by, the UK’s domestic cooks were an adventurous lot when it came to seafood, prepared to dish up anything from an oyster cocktail to whale meat curry.

But an academic investigation of more than 1,000 fish and shellfish recipes published in a lifestyle magazine over the last century suggests tastes have become much narrower. Ruth Thurstan, from the University of Exeter, studied seafood recipes published in the British version of the magazine Good Housekeeping from 1923 to the present.

Pre-1970s: A diverse mix of species in recipes. No single group ruled but flatfish, herring and oyster were prominent. Recipes emphasised domestic skills, economy and preparing whole fish.

The 1970s shift: A decline in diversity of fish species in recipes, with increased focus on the “big five”.

1980s-present: “Big five” present in the majority of recipes, with a decline of other species – though not all have vanished entirely.

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© Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

© Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

© Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

The Norwegian government has given a permit to a mining company to release waste into Førde fjord despite a 17-year battle by campaigners and a supreme court ruling against it

Shortly after the Norwegian stock market closed on 17 June 2026, a few dozen local people from the small west coast town of Vevring crowded around a laptop in a school. Surrounded by children’s drawings and windows looking out over Førde fjord, they listened as news arrived from Oslo. Norway’s supreme court had ruled against its government: a permit to release mining waste directly into the fjord two miles upstream was illegal, the court said.

The moment marked the end of a 17-year fight, one of Norway’s most protracted environmental battles in living memory. In Oslo, Ingvild Fonn Asmervik, the project leader for Naturvernforbundet (Friends of the Earth Norway), compared the joy she felt to giving birth to her child. For Anne-Line Thingnes Førsund, a third-generation fisher living on the banks of the fjord in Vevring and a volunteer for the charity’s local branch, it was more of a relief. Like a mountain lifting off her shoulders, she said.

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© Photograph: Marek Slusarczyk/Alamy

© Photograph: Marek Slusarczyk/Alamy

© Photograph: Marek Slusarczyk/Alamy

Tens of thousands of small barriers hamper fish recovery in the northeastern United States. But while the demolition of big dams out west gets the most attention, a similar revolution is revitalizing northeastern streams and rivers—one tiny dam at a time.

Dam removal is often described as rewilding rivers, but it also liberates the human imagination, the latest installment in Ben Goldfarb's Wildlife at the Crossroads series.

Three varieties of "vegan Dracula" plant-eating lampreys found in unlikely places. Scientists are working to determine the full range of the ancient and elusive creatures that have lain hidden for 150 million-odd years.

With its suction-cup mouth and circular rows of sharp teeth, a close-up view of an Australian brook lamprey is rather frightening. But unlike many bloodthirsty lampreys around the world, this species prefers a plant-based diet, gobbling up organic matter on creek beds instead.